Warner Bros. Discovery is officially discussing a possible Game of Thrones spinoff movie. It’s so early in the development process that no one is attached to the project because the studio doesn’t even know what the project might be. Fortunately for those executives, we have plenty of great ideas for them to consider. Here are six Game of Thrones standalone movies we’d love to see on the big screen. (Each one works on its own as a single story while still having a meaningful connection to Westeros’ most important tale.)
Lann the Clever, Founder of House Lannister
House Lannister is one of the most important families in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and like all the other ancient major houses caught up in the author’s game of the thrones, they trace their own story back to a famous founder. Legend says Lann the Clever stole Casterly Rock from House Casterly during the Age of Heroes long ago. The myths don’t agree on exactly how he pulled that off, though. Those different versions, each tantalizing in their own way or even combined, all work as a terrific standalone film. (A TV show would better serve Bran the Builder, founder of House Stark.)
Lann’s story is complex, important, and fun, but short enough to be told in a solo film. Yet it still involves everything we love about this world: familial intrigue, subterfuge, seduction, and murder. But no matter the ultimate truth about Lann (or whomever was ultimately the first Lannister), he put his family on course to be a major player in Westeros for millennia. Knowing the origins of Tywin, Jaime, Cersei, and Tyrion’s family would also enrich their stories.
Elissa Farman and Asshai
Asshai-by-the-Shadow might be the single most interesting city in Martin’s fantasy world. It’s certainly a place we’ve longed to see, as it has yet to officially appear in any of Martin’s five books or HBO’s TV shows. Mysterious and dark (both literally and metaphorically), no kind of magic or sorcery is off limits in this ancient port city at the edge of the world. It’s where notorious figures like Melisandre and Mirri Maz Duur learned their dark arts. Some believe it’s also where the last hero Azor Ahai came from and where dragons first appeared in the world. It’s also a place Daenerys was told in the novels that she must travel to. If she does, she’ll be one of the few characters who ever has. Fortunately there’s one perfect figure to bring us to that land of wonder and intrigue: the daring Elissa Farman.
Lady Elissa Farman was a great seafarer and lover of Princess Rhaena Targaryen. (Not the Rhaena from House of the Dragon.) When Rhaena denied Elissa’s request to set sail on a grand adventure, the noblewomen stole three dragon eggs from House Targaryen and fled on her ship. It was a massive scandal and King Jaehaerys ordered a massive hunt for both Elissa and the eggs, but neither were ever seen again.
The closest anyone ever came to getting answers about the sharp, alluring, and brave Elissa came during the second of nine great voyages by House of the Dragon‘s Corlys Velaryon. He traveled to Asshai on a trip where he “lost his love and half his crew.” While in the port city he saw Elissa’s ship Sun Chaser decades after she was last season in Westeros.
How did Elissa Farman end up there and what happened when she arrived? Not only would her own tale make for a fascinating solo film, it would also be the perfect excuse to learn some of the vital, world-changing secrets hiding in the shadows of Asshai.
Jenny of Oldstones
Not every great story from Westeros involves dragons, ice demons, or war. The Seven Kingdoms is also home to many great love stories. That includes Jenny of Oldstones, the beloved figure Podrick Payne sang about the night before the Battle of Winterfell on Game of Thrones. Jenny is at the heart of one of the Seven Realm’s most revered romances. What makes that romance worthy of its own movie over most others is that it is also one of the most important.
The heir to the Iron Throne, Duncan Targaryen, fell in love with Jenny, a beautiful peasant girl who might have been a witch. The Prince of Dragonstone gave up his birthright to marry Jenny, and while that meant he would never become King the royal court did learn to accept his beautiful wife who also brought her closest friend with her to King’s Landing.
That friend came to be known as the ghost of High Heart, a fascinating figure who appears in Martin’s novels. The short albino woods witch, who Jenny said was one of the Children of the Forest, who sees accurate visions of both the past and future. She was also the one who foretold which line of Targaryens would produce the Prince That Was Promised. The ghost of High Heart was also present at the notorious Tragedy of Summerhall, one of the saddest in House Targaryen’s history and the night Jon Snow’s father Rhaegar was born.
The woods witch survived, but no one knows what happened to Jenny that night. A movie that combines romance, political turmoil, witches, and a tragic fire would not only give us answers about both Jenny and her mysterious friend. It could also reveal the secrets of what happened at Summerhall that night. And it would delve deeper into the world’s most important prophecy.
The Second Spice War of the Rhoynar and Valyria
As much as we love a good romance, some of the greatest stories in Martin’s world do involve dragons and war. And the biggest of them all would make for one hell of a big screen spectacle. The only enemy to ever put up a real fight against the Valyrian Freehold and its colonies were the city-states of the Rhoyne River in Essos. The two sides fought many wars for many years, with the Rhonyish forces holding out against the dragonlords until their last meeting. That epic clash is known as the Second Spice War.
That epic battle for the ages saw 250,000 thousand (250,000 THOUSAND) Rhoynish soldiers unite under Prince Garin the Great. Valyria’s army countered with its own massive forced accompanied by 300 dragons. Only, Garin had an answer for those creatures of fire: the Rhoyne River itself. Water wizards could use their own kind of magic to raise the sea high in the air to drown their opponents.
Imagine a battle with hundreds of thousand of soldiers, water magic, and 300 dragons. The visuals alone are reason enough to make this film. But there’s more to the case for the Second Spice War getting a feature film. It is also a vital turning point in the history of the world. It was the last time anyone seriously challenged Valyria, but while the dragonlords when the victory might have ultimately led to the destruction of the empire. A captured Garin is said to have placed a curse on Valyria that manifested as greyscale. Only some think his curse did something far worse. They say Garin caused the Doom of Valyria.
No matter what he did or did not do to punish Valyria, The Second Spice War forever changed Westeros, too. Queen Nymeria helped the surviving Rhoynish sail away, a journey that led them to settle in Dorne.
Founding of the Faceless Men
The servants of the Many-Faced God who reside in the House of Black and White in Braavos are among the most interesting and mysterious figures in all of Martin’s fantasy realm. Yet Game of Thrones only scratched the surface of why. Those secret assassins who can wear another’s face trace their order’s founding to the volcanic slave mines of Old Valyria. There the first of them realized all the slaves from different places with different religions were all calling out to one single god (a god with many faces) with the same prayer. It was a prayer for death. It was in those harsh mines underneath history;s greatest Empire where this unknown figure first gave someone “the gift.”
The tales say the first Faceless Man not only recruited other servants from among the slaves, but they started giving the masters the gift of death, too. Some legends say the Faceless Men ultimately gave all of Old Valyria the gift when they caused the Doom of the Freehold. That nearly killed every remaining dragon in the world. Only House Targaryen fled before the cataclysm, which a Faceless Men founding movie could reveal was no accident as it brings both the grandeur and destruction of the Valyrian Freehold to the screen.
The Doom of Valyria
Two out of our first five ideas connect to the Doom of Valyria, but the event itself is worthy of a feature film. The Doom happened when the city’s mountain range the Fourteen Flames shot volcanic ash and dragonglass thousands of feet into the sky. It killed dragons and everyone who lived there. The peninsula fragmented, lakes boiled and turned to acid, and all of the secrets of dragon magic vanished. Unimaginable knowledge burned away when the greatest power the world had ever known turned to ash.
What caused the Doom? Faceless Men? Garin’s Curse? Mother nature? The assassination of fire mages by petty dragonlords greedy for more power? Something else entirely lost to time and flames in the smoldering ruin of a cursed land? Even before the actual doom, the film would make for a great personal drama. Valyria was rich and powerful, a magical place rules by many dragonlords. Like Westeros, some of those leaders must have been good, some and, and some in-between. What were there final days like? Did anyone know what was coming like a dragon riding Jor-El in George R.R. Martin’s fiery version of Krypton?
Like all of these ideas, this would work as a standalone Game of Thrones movie because while we already know much about the Doom of Valyria, there’s still so much to learn. So which of these six Game of Thrones standalone movies do we hope Warner Bros. Discovery makes? Isn’t it obvious? All of them.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who wants to know the truth about Lann the Clever. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
Originally published on November 5, 2024.
